The folks in Marion County Indiana announced today that they had completed testing their iVotronic machines. They claim the machines are all ready to go. I think that is probably a bit of soothing for the voters. In fact, none of their iVotronics can be used for accessibility in the primary so they are announcing that disabled voters will be able to have someone assist them in the voting process. Also some ballots cannot be read by the op-scan machines and will have to be counted by hand. Kanawha County West Virginia is also having problems getting software for their AutoMarks so there will be no accessible voting in that county. Voters with disabilities are being told to bring a friend or ask for help. And, the Democrats in Alaska have gone to court, finally, in an attempt to get the records of the 2004 election from the state....

SCotland - Electronic vote counting to be introduced in Scotland next year LINK

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Hey Brad - Welcome to Sacramento. I was quite suprised to get into my car to head home from work and find you chatting with Christine! Ya made me drive 20 miles out of my way so I could hear the whole show!

Had I known you were coming I'd have taken off early and come down to the studio to shake your hand and thank you in person for your work.

It was *very* last minute as I was supposed to be heading back from San Francisco to LA, when Christine twisted my arm to pop over to Sacramento and do an in studio appearance. So didn't even get to announce it on the blog.

Glad you caught it though, and would have been great to say hello in person! Sorry I didn't even know until the last minute!

Polls are showing that the people favor democrats taking over majority party status in congress in November. It is by about 47% to 33% and growing.

However, the way congressional districts are drawn (link to your district map here) raises the very serious spectre that gerrymandering may thwart the will of the people. The way districts are drawn can change everything (link here).

On Hardball With Chris Matthews(MSNBC) yesterday, a reporter stated that on a district by district basis, polls show that republicans would hold the majority. In other words, the design of the districts is such that it thwarts and is contrary to the will of the people at large. The maps link shows how true this is. Look at the 25th and 28th districts of Texas, Tom DeLay confligrations, to see what I mean.

We have a dictatorial situation anytime the will of the people is thwarted by its government. There is no other name for it. Some dictatorships are less vile than others, but calling a spade a spade is what I am talking about. We have a dictatorship if the people cannot express their will by their vote. If the government allows us to vote but that vote is meaningless, the fact is that it is a dictatorship because the people cannot change the government.

The Texas gerrymandering case has been put on the fast track by the US Supreme Court (link here).

This is unusual under normal circumstances, but is all the more unusual since the cases have been stalled and have therefore been on the slow track in the US Supreme Court until now.

The case it now seems that will be reversed is Henderson v Perry (link here).

The issue of gerrymandering is equal to the problem with voting machines. Because even if we perfect the voting machines, the gerrymandering issue is just as much a threat.

Both evils ... gerrymandering and fraudulent and junky electronic voting machines ... are destroying American democracy.

And if the judicial goes down the tubes too (link here), and does not stop gerrymandering, I am sorry to say that democracy will be gone from American soil for a long time.